Energy minister suspects ‘foreign hand’ in countrywide power breakdown

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy Engineer Khurram Dastgir suspected a foreign hand in the massive country-wide power breakdown, ARY News reported.

As per details, the energy minister addressed a news conference on the country-wide power breakdown.

He said that there is enough fuel for the generation of power, to run the thermal power plants. The heavy-consuming power plants are used rarely to maintain the fuel price adjustment.

The minister said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has constituted a three-member committee to find out the reasons behind the power breakdown. The ministry will cooperate with the committee headed by Musadiq Malik.

Lambasting at the previous government, he said that they did not invest in the power sector.

Read more: ALL GRID STATIONS ‘RESTORED’ AFTER MAJOR POWER OUTAGE, CLAIMS ENERGY MINISTRY

Nuclear plants need two to three days while coal power plants required 48 hours to start. Hence the shortfall of power will carry on for some time.

Earlier, the Ministry of Energy claimed on Tuesday that all 1,112 grid stations of the country’s national grid have been “restored” after a major 24-hour power breakdown.

“All 1,112 grid stations restored within 24 hours nationwide,” tweeted the ministry.

It is pertinent to note here that power was still not restored to large parts of Karachi, including, Gulistan-e-Johar, Malir, Gulshan-e-Maymar, Gulshan-e-Hadeed, Landhi, Saddar and several other areas as reported by ARY News.

The country had plunged into darkness Monday morning due to a fault in the national grid.

Reasons revealed

The extreme shortfall in electricity generation is said to be the major cause of the power breakdown that hit various parts of the country.

Power generation was lower than 7,000 megawatts on Monday morning, well-placed sources said.” There was upto 6,000 megawatts”.

“Hydel power generation in the country goes down to 90 percent, while thermal power generation by 70 pct,” according to sources.

PM orders probe

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday took notice of the countrywide power breakdown.